Since I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, I have always been a huge proponent of public transportation. I even lived in Austin for 8 1/2 years before getting a driver's license! I recently teamed up with Cap Metro as a photographer to collaborate on their Austin Collective project, which highlights the stories of public transit riders through portraits and interviews. I was really excited to be able to work on a project that combined so many of my interests. A few photos and quotes are below. The Austin Collective will be exhibiting photos from the project during East Austin Studio Tour at 507 Calles Street, and I will be participating in a panel discussion about the project in the same location on November 12, from 4-5 PM.

“I don’t think about stopping, but I know there’s going to be a time. It’s probably going to be due to injury. I expect to get hurt in a way where I really can’t recover well enough to play again. I’m going to hate it. I just like the competition and the game itself. So I’ll be very unhappy. But I’ve got the gym. I can continue going to the gym and getting exercise that way. But it’ll be a sad day.” - Abe

“I have children. They’re my world and everything I do is for them. I’ve had employment to where I had to catch the bus two hours to work, two hours home. It wasn’t a good paying job, but I had to do it. My children are my biggest job. Just to better myself in any area.” - Jason

“I’m sort of a pessimistic optimist. Things are going to get bad in the next twenty or thirty years, but at some point we’re going to be able to turn it around. Once we have more solar panels, we change our lifestyles, and we use less resources. I think we can do it.” - Pedro

“I was at an emoji-themed birthday party and they wanted the poop emoji all over their face. The whole face as a poop emoji. They made that decision and I was like, ‘alright, we can do that. I mean, your parents might be upset with me later on, but it was you that picked this.’ They loved it. I gave them glitter and everything. They were happy.” - Ruth

“I specifically want to work in gene therapy. You see a gene and it’s messed up, and because it’s messed up it’s causing some kind of neurological or biological problem. If you can go in and fix the gene somehow, then the problem is solved. I think if we could do that for Alzheimer’s or Huntington’s or other degenerative diseases then that would be the best thing.” - Victoria

“I started taking the bus and trying to ride my bike and do all that after five years of commuting to Texas State. I was just driving so much and I could tell it was negatively affecting my life. Being stressed out on the road, not having time to do things I needed to for school or for work. Just spending lots of times on the road and feeling frustrated because I was just driving so much.” - Sarah Beth